Mama Wailer

Soul jazz organist Lonnie Smith’s seventh album was his first for newly launched Kudu Records in 1971. You get just four tracks, each a lengthy Hammond B-3 work out with some particularly soaring soloing from bandmember Danny More on trumpet, but the entire band absolutely cook: Bill Cobham’s impeccable drums never seem to rest while Ron Carter effortlessly anchors the songs via impressively complex and speedily melodic basslines. Side two is devoted entirely to a sprawling seventeen minutes plus rendition of Sly Stone’s “Stand” that heads off into an intense, swirling, panoramic, tripped out proto acid jazz work out as the organ and clavinet get some extra reverb treatment, and the rhythm section lock in hard under a searing Grover Washington solo, before slowly breaking down before the listener’s ears. A killer organ-soul-jazz-psychedelic-boogaloo album.